Even Monsters Deserve Love
by Cookies and Ink
Summary: A girl on the tube was reading 'Frankenstein'... On his way to propose to Tonks, Remus starts to see omens and get cold feet.


A/N - All quotes bar the last one are taken from 'Frankenstein' by Mary Shelley. The final quote is by Mary Wollstonecraft, Shelley's mother.

Even Monsters Deserve Love

A girl on the tube was reading 'Frankenstein'.

Remus' eyes landed on a it as a sickening, bitter feeling settled in the pit of his stomach. It was a lot to handle on top of the crush of the crowds, his pounding heart, the weight of the box in his pocket, and how the stale air seemed to coat his tongue with every shallow breath. Closing his eyes, Remus blamed his swaying on the twists and turns of the tube.

' _There is love in me the likes of which you've never seen. There is rage in me the likes of which should never escape. If I am not satisfied in the one, I will indulge in the other.'_

For that book to be here in front of him felt like the sort of superstitious omen that Remus would normally find hilarious. Today of all days, however, any sign or hint at anything less than positive weighed heavy in Remus' mind.

Despite his Mother being the English teacher in the local Muggle town, 'Frankenstein' hadn't really crossed Remus' radar until he was in his late teens - his sixth year at Hogwarts, to be precise. At the time, it had seemed almost inevitable - the perfect novel for a young werewolf full of self-hatred and macabre dark humour. After all, if Remus could not relate to being shunned by his creator and society as a whole, then who on this Earth could?

None of his friends had really got the 'joke' until Lily had dropped down on the squishiest sofa in the Gryffindor Common Room, stretched her legs out so she could put her feet in his lap, and started to quiz Remus on his views on the morality of the book. Looking back Remus had to smile at how unprepared for the onslaught he had been.

Excerpts came back to him as he checked his watch. He was going to be late.

' _Nothing is so painful to the human mind as great and sudden change. The sun might shine… but nothing could appear to me as it had done the day before.'_

The first time Remus had seen Tonks, she had slipped down the stairs and fallen into his arms. Her hair had gone from peach to a deep violet, there were freckles on her nose, but it was how she laughed with a wink that had turned everything upside down.

Remus could think of and had written several lists of why it wouldn't work, why they were bad for each other. At every turn, Dora had proved him wrong. She had stayed by him through poverty and full moons. Her kisses were electric. Remus was hoping and dreaming of the future like he never had before, no matter how dark everything around them seemed to be.

For such a small box, the engagement ring felt like it must have been spelled to weigh a tonne and burn a hole through his pocket. Remus kept touching it to make sure it was still there, as though he could possibly forget what he was about to do.

He nearly missed his stop, lost in his own thoughts. They were a heady mixture of past regrets and nerves about what might happen. The escalators were stacked high with impatient people keen to get above ground, away from fluorescent lights. Humid, unreasonably warm weather was beckoning people outside; tempting thoughts of 'one last hurrah' before cold winds brought the change of seasons.

Using Muggle transport came with pros and cons. It took a lot longer, that was a certainty, and yet with current events being as they were, British wizards were foraying less and less into Muggle areas. The knock-on effect was a fantastic exchange rate that Remus had taken full advantage of. On any other day, saving the money that he had would have more than made up for being nearly ten minutes late. All thoughts of 'Frankenstein' and whatever chilling similarities it might represent were banished from his mind, replaced by mental maps of the streets he had to navigate to get to the park he had agreed to meet Dora at.

So he ran.

What if she didn't say yes?

With every step, the question plagued him. Remus had planned how he was going to propose for weeks; all it had taken was several favours cashed in, three pints, a packet of pork scratchings, and the promise to proofread a book on Ancient Runes for much less than a standard publisher or editor would charge. That was one good thing about constantly finding new work - it meant that he knew a lot of people. The shortlist included bakers, librarians, teachers, security guards, and a recently qualified goldsmith. His mother had told him, ' _It's nice to be nice,'_ but Remus had always known it wasn't just niceness, it was often extremely useful. Most of his twenties had been spent couch-surfing thanks to other people's pity.

Slowing down as he entered Diagon Alley, his thoughts drifted back to the monster in the book — the real monster, Victor Frankenstein, who had abandoned his creation out of fear of loathing. By the final chapters, he had lost everything, and there was a time when, as a middle-aged werewolf, Remus would have aligned himself with the cruelest of monsters. Remus too had lost so much — sometimes, he wasn't sure what else he could give.

Then he remembered the freckles on her nose. That particular shade of fuchsia she was so fond of. Perhaps love really was the cure of the savagery that threatened so often to consume him.

To his immense relief, Dora had been running even later than himself. Remus had been standing by the fountain embedded in the wall to catch his breath, wanting to appear somewhat cool and suave when she raced up, boots slapping against the floor and echoing around the narrow passage.

"Dora,." he called to her. Her head twisted around as she stumbled to a halt, face lighting up at the sight of him. How could he be worried she thought him a monster, when being together made him feel lighter than air and her eyes always sparkled?

"I'm sorry I was running late —" she began, but then laughed at the sight of him. "Why do I get the feeling we both were?"

Her hand fit perfectly in his, and Remus, filled with emotion, drew her in for a slow kiss that made Dora's hair bleed into an ear-searing shade of pink. As dates went, it was slow — full of hand holding, soft smiles, and the lightest of touches. He didn't even check his watch once or wonder about the future — for those few hours, they were perfectly content to exist in their own world.

"I have a surprise," Remus said after a long while of calm silence, and Dora looked at him, her curiosity clear. "But first I need to do something."

He motioned for her to stay sitting and then slowly knelt down on one knee. It was an archaic practice, almost as old-fashioned as asking for consent. Remus knew Dora well enough that she would have scoffed at him falling into dated ideas of asking for the 'father's consent', and so he had gone to both her parents and expressed how he was going to marry her but would appreciate their blessing. Andromeda had hugged him, something that had never happened before, whilst Ted had been absolutely overjoyed.

Dora watched him with wide eyes, her mouth dropping open as Remus let out a slow breath to calm his nerves.

"Would you do me the honour of becoming my partner, my equal in all things? You've made me a happier, better man in such a short amount of time and I cannot imagine a world without you. I don't even want to try. In the box—" Remus opened it slowly "—is a key and a step towards an adventure I want us to take together. Will you come with me?"

Remus didn't ask her to marry him, not those exact words, because it felt more than just that. If she said yes, he would be hers until the day he died.

"Yes."

One syllable had never sounded so perfect.

Inside the jewellery box wasn't a ring but a small, well-worn key. Tonks threw her arms around him as Remus got back to his feet, nearly knocking him down again before taking the key, a hand rubbing at her eyes to keep herself from crying.

"Yes, yes, yes!" she cried, leaping into his arms, legs wrapping around his waist as she kissed him with such exuberance that Remus laughed, the sound muffled with her lips pressed against his.

"Here, I'll explain the key. I can carry you all the way, if you'd like? A piggy back?" Remus grinned and Tonks only reluctantly got down after Remus promised that they wouldn't have to walk far. He took his time between kisses to tell her of the warehouse they were going to; Remus had spent the past four nights there learning the spells necessary for basic jewellery work.

"You have? I had no idea!" Tonks said and Remus laughed then shrugged.

"I wanted to do something special and like I said, the owner owes me a few favours. I thought if we made our rings…"

Tonks stopped him with a kiss and the last few steps towards a well worn brick building were a stumble. The key opened the front door, and the inside was lit with a soft orange glow. It had been one of his better ideas, all of his nerves fading away as he watched Dora focus hard on shaping the gold. He slowly dragged his eyes away, picking the stones that reminded him of her, slipping the ring he had made onto her slim finger, and knowing that she would always wear a piece of him and his magic on her at all times gave Remus more happiness and confidence than he could have imagined. The ring she had fashioned for him was understated but engraved on the inside.

' _The beginning is always today.'_

He held Dora in his arms, realising that this moment was going to be the first in a series of memories that would stay with him forever. He knew that it shouldn't work — there were always going to be reasons why he could be a monster. Choosing not to be, however, choosing love — that's how Remus wanted to be remembered.


End file.
